To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential (a) impact of trends in the level of Chinese steel exports in the first two months of 2024 on the UK steel industry and (b) merits of taking additional steps to help protect the industry from potential global oversupply pressures.

HMRC Trade Information (www.uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/) currently provides data up to and including January 2024. In the first month of 2024, China represented c.6% of all UK steel imports in volume terms.

We recognise that global economic conditions continue to be challenging for the steel industries across the globe.

This is why we have put in place a robust trade remedies framework to provide appropriate protection for domestic industries, including steel, against surges of imports and unfair practices. The UK has 10 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on 8 different steel products from China.

This year, the UK is chairing the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity, which seeks to find shared international solutions to the issue of over-capacity.